Cause & Causality
by Lamia of the Dark
Summary: Oneshot. Peter B gets shoved through a wormhole and ends up back in Miles's dimension, where he has a very awkward conversation with Liv. Written for Caesar's Palace Monthly Oneshot Challenge, (June 2019).


~ Cause & Causality ~

" 'When one door closes another door opens, but we so often look so long and so regretfully upon the closed door, that we do not see the ones which open for us.' "

"I don't think _this_ is what Alexander Graham Bell meant," Spiderman protested as he was shoved unceremoniously through one of the stable wormholes generated by Doc Ock's new machine.

When he came out on the other side, he found himself in... Doc Ock's lab. Not the same exact one he'd just come from, but a different one that he was also familiar with.

Upon recognizing her, he quickly held up his hands in the 'surrender' position to let her know that he hadn't come with hostile intentions, before peeling his mask back with one hand so she could see _which_ Spiderman he was.

"Hello, Peter," Olivia Octavius greeted him cheerfully. "Have a seat." She gestured to an empty chair.

"Yeah, hi, Dr. Octavius." He had a hard time keeping a note of sarcasm out of his voice, but gratefully collapsed into the offered seat.

"There's no need to be so formal," she said. "You can just call me Liv."

"Uh, yeah... no. The uh, Liv thing is still kinda weird for me."

"Oh? Is it because we're still technically enemies, or because I'm not called that in your universe?"

"Uh, well, you know, Liv doesn't really work as a nickname for Otto, so..."

"So I'm a man in your universe? Fascinating."

"Anyway," Peter said, cringing a bit from the fanatical light that sparked in her eyes at the mention of the differences between their two universes. "Can you send me back? I kinda need to go punch _my_ Doc Ock in the face."

"Hmm? Oh... no. My machine isn't operational at the moment. Sorry."

He let out a heavy sigh. "Well, that's just great."

"You said you were going to punch 'your' Doc Ock in the face. What about me? Are you planning to punch me in the face?"

"What? No! You're not the one who sent me here." After a brief pause, Peter added, "... this time, anyway. Wait... do you _want_ me to try to punch you in the face? You'd already know it was coming - because I already told you - and you would probably just block it with one - or more - of your tentacles."

She stared at him contemplatively for a few long moments. Peter was the one to become uncomfortable with the silence first.

"By the way," he said, "the Doc Ock from my dimension is, uh..." At this point he faltered, as he realized that his interlocutor might be offended by what he had to say. He saw that her eyes were sparkling with excitement over the prospect of learning something about her alternate-universe self, and he felt even more conflicted about actually saying what he was about to say, but he was too socially awkward to _not_ keep going. "He's uh, well... he's not as... nice as you-"

"Aw, you think I'm nice?" Olivia commented. Then, realizing she'd interrupted him, flashed him a sheepish smile and said, "Sorry, continue."

"Well, I mean, in comparison he's definitely _less_ nice than you. He did shove me through a wormhole."

"And that's how you ended up in _my_ lab instead of his. But there's no wormhole here," she said.

"Yeah, that's kind of the problem. Do you think maybe you could help me get back home?"

"As I mentioned before, my machine isn't operational at the moment. I don't suppose you happened to grab any of Otto's data while you were there?"

Peter sighed and dropped his head into his hands. "Didn't really think of that while I was, you know, fighting not to get shoved through a wormhole."

"I'm a missing a few essential components," she told him with a speculative expression on her face, which he did not like the look of. "If you could... spider along and get them for me, we could have you home in short order."

"Great," Peter said, somehow managing to sound more enthusiastic than sarcastic. He slid his mask back on, then stood up and stretched. "Where are the goobers?"

~end~


End file.
